Medicare From A Different Viewpoint: First article in a series about my experience of medicare as a women with a disAbility

The first time I really wrote about anything that was identifiably personal was after the Supreme Court decision on private insurance in Quebec for medical services. I did this because of how important I felt the issue was and because I thought my experience had something to say in the debate that ensued.

I don't make a practice of talking about my "real life" on the blog. I still have no interest in discussing all of the details of my personal life. However I'm sure most of you have come across the term the personal is political. I believe my personal experience of Medicare in Ontario (and programs related to medications and dentistry) are relevant to the current health care debate.

It is the decision by the Canadian Medical Association, to elect a Doctor who owns a private clinic, and who is a vocal supporter of private health care is what is moving me to give more details of my life that has lead me to this decision. I want to write about the issues, and how I have experienced them. I don't think that my experience in unique. I do however think that it is one that I seldom see discussed

I am a women with a disAbility. It is one part of who I am. I also have many other characteristics and this one is not more important or less important than any of the others. I am not in any way ashamed of being a women with a disAbility, and I deal with challenges in my life in the same way that anyone else does. I didn't feel it was really needed as context to what I was writing, generally, before this. It has come up, but has not very often or as directly.

I will be writing a series of articles on health care in Canada, and related topics. I want to bring the experience of a low income person with disAbilities to the blogosphere discussion on health care. So when it is relevant I will now be discussing more of my "actual" life. In fact in "real" life I am quite open about how these aspects of my life when they are relevant, often politically, in a more open manner then I will be using here. As people have recently been noting what you write on the Internet can follow you forever, so I have decided to be somewhat less open than I am in real life.

I hope that you will follow me through the discussion about an experience how our health care (and related areas such as dentistry and pharmacare) system is experienced by me and by others I know. It is in no way the final word. However it is one that as I said I don't see discussed much in the blogosphere, and it is something that I think should be discussed...You may very well not agree with the conclusions that I draw from these experiences, but they do provide a look about the current debate about Medicare From a
Different Viewpoint.P